Discussion of public health and health care policy, from a public health perspective. The U.S. spends more on medical services than any other country, but we get less for it. Major reasons include lack of universal access, unequal treatment, and underinvestment in public health and social welfare. We will critically examine the economics, politics and sociology of health and illness in the U.S. and the world.

At the same time, however, we are trying to eradicate some species. We've already terminated the variola virus (smallpox) and we're working on polio. Whether viruses are really species, or really alive, is questionable however. They don't have any metabolism and they don't contribute to biomass. Nothing eats them. All these particular viruses could do was make us sick and sometimes kill us, so I don't suppose anyone is sorry to see them go.

The Guinea worm is, from the human viewpoint, an extraordinarily repulsive creature. Again, I can't imagine many people will be sorry to see the last of them. Still, it gives one pause. The ethics of our relationship to nature are complicated. Wolves and tigers and cougars are an economic and physical threat to us, and in the old days people were happy to try to just kill as many as possible. But we don't think that way any more. Most people think it's very important to preserve them.

But can you put your finger on precisely what is different between them and the Guinea worm?